Halloween

Looking forward to some chocolate and a glass of wine at our community bonfire tonight, if it's not too cold outside. (We've already had some snow flurries this afternoon). Otherwise I will do the chocolate and wine thing indoors. ;)

Creepy Doll

She is creepy because she has no eyebrows and her eyes are asymmetrical. She shows no emotion.

I used watercolour pencils for shading on her face and I went a little crazy with fabric scraps on her body.

I loved working on her, but here's what ticked me off. I started to stuff her with polyfil. I ran out of this great batting I had been using on other projects, so I switched over to some fill I had recently purchased from Wal-Mart. Curses on Wal-Mart again. This batting was horrible. I just couldn't get a smooth even distribution without a great deal of effort. All I can say is that I am glad I didn't buy the large bag of this useless stuff for $15.00 and that I only shelled out $5.00.

This dolly was part of a birthday present I made for my friend who shares my love of old movies. At least once a week we get together to watch an old film from the 30s, 40s or 50s. We figure how can you go wrong with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck.

Creepy Doll WIP

It's our busiest time of year as mentioned in my previous post and poor hubby came down with a nasty case of the flu. He had to stay home and rest for three days and I had to play "Florence Nightingale". My TLC seems to have payed off as he is making a quick recovery. Now I am a bit sick and hubby is looking after me.

I was starting to panic since we were days behind with our Christmas orders and I was wondering how on earth we were going to catch up. We are so blessed because my wonderful sister and brother-in-law got up very early this morning to help us with our Christmas inventory and thanks to them, we are back on schedule.

Yesterday I spent some time at my sewing machine working on a "creepy" doll (they are so much fun). Here's a sneak preview. You get to see the finished product tomorrow.

Happy Cats

I haven't had much time lately to devote to my create efforts. As wholesalers of British groceries and chocolates, our busy season, Christmas, has arrived. We have to make sure we get the holiday stock out to our customers' shops as soon as possible which means we have to be at numerous different places at the same time. We're working long hours but today I did manage to do a bit of stitching.

HAPPY CAT #1 (created today)






















HAPPY CAT #2 (a surprise visitor who showed up at my door and stayed a couple of days until her rightful owner came to fetch her)

How I Almost Lost My Sewing Machine

When I ran into trouble with my sewing machine, I took it to the dealer for repairs. This was the same shop where I purchased the machine. They sell sewing machines, embroidery machines, sergers and quilting machines as well as a wide variety of quilting fabrics and accessories. Theirs is a thriving business that offers all sorts of classes and seemed to be very popular and doing very well. Or so I thought.

Hubby went to pick up my machine within normal store hours and when he got there, the shop was closed. He called to tell me that there were no machines in the storefront and that the shop was pretty well bare except for a few bolts of fabric.

Our guess was that the business went under and that the creditors had foreclosed. We know from personal experience with a customer of ours that once a creditor seizes a business, it is next to impossible to retrieve anything in the store, even if the item was not an asset of the business. So I have to admit I got panicky when I thought there was a strong possibility that I would not get my sewing machine back.

Fortunately, the dealer sent had my machine to a local repairman who works out of his home. When the repairs were done, the gentleman had phoned and left me a message that it was ready for pickup in the shop. That’s s why I was so worried because I knew my machine was somewhere in the store.

I called the repairman directly and was greatly relieved to find out that he suspected something was going on with the business and that he had gone back to get my machine before they “pad-locked” the store. What a relief. Hubby went to repairman’s house the next day and picked up my machine. I am very fortunate. From now on I will deal directly with the repairman. I will never leave my sewing machine with a store, ever again.

Tomorrow I hope to find time to do some machine stitching on my creepy dolls. Below is the start of another “Creepy”.

A Surprise While We Were Away

Hubby and I are back from our mini trip. When we finally arrived at our destination, we were ready to relax and have some fun. There was a small hiccup in our plans. On the way there, a man in a pickup truck pulled up beside us at the traffic stop to let us know that we had no brake lights. Fortunately we were in a large town so we figured they were bound to have a Canadian Tire store (Canadian chain store affectionately and often referred to as "Crappy Tire"). We found one and they were able to fix the problem and it only delayed our trip by 45 minutes. Would you believe it was a simple matter of replacing the bulbs and that both had burned out at the same time?

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast and spent much of the time just wandering around. One of the places we wandered into was an antiques shop. We were browsing in separate aisles, when suddenly I said in a very loud voice something like "on my, I can't believe it, I can't believe it". Hubby and the store proprietor came rushing over to see what the noise was all about. What I couldn't believe is pictured below.

























You might say it's a nice enough painting but why all the fuss? Well, this is personal to me because it was painted by Estonian artist Benita Vomm, who was a family friend of 50 years before she passed away several years ago. The whole family, Benita, her husband, son and daughter, were all artists. Only her daughter (who is also my sister's godmother) is still alive today. It would have meant a lot to me to be able to purchase this lovely painting, but the price was beyond my budget. The proprietor was kind enough to allow hubby to take a photo. Mr Proprietor was also quick to give us his card in case we should have a change of heart. I am having the photo developed to send to the daughter as I am sure she will be interested in this happy discovery of ours.

Even though I can't have this painting, the abstract floral below, also by Benita Vomm has been in my collection for over 30 years, so I am happy to at least have it.